Rendition Review

Bottom-Line:  For those willing to listen, Rendition has a powerful message to impart.            

"Extraordinary Rendition"; that odious practice reportedly started under the Clinton Administration, but the Bush Administration took it to new lows after 9/11 is the subject of Rendition (2007).  In case you have never heard of the affront to human rights, Extraordinary Rendition is the practice of kidnapping a person and shipping them off-usually by CIA chartered jet-to a place where the torture has been elevated to a high art form, all for the stated purpose of saving lives. 

The Story

Helmed by actor turned director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) Rendition chronicles the abduction of one Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally - Munich), a naturalized American citizen born in Egypt.  Anwar, a chemical engineer, is on his way back to Chicago where he lives with his American-born wife Isabella (Witherspoon - Cruel Intentions), son Jeremy (Aramis Knight), and mother Nuru (Rosie Malek-Yonan - Chicago Hope), when a bomb goes off in Egypt killing scores of Egyptians and one American CIA operative. 

Phone records seemingly connect Anwar to the planning of the attack so he is abducted-rendered-taken to Egypt and handed over to Abasi Fawell (Yigal Naor - Munich), a man who specializes in extracting information from prisoners using unconventional methods; i.e. torture.  Douglas Freeman (Gyllenhaal - Jarhead) is a freshly minted CIA field operative who witnessed the terrorist attack has been assigned to observe Anwar's interrogation by Lee Mayer (J.K. Simmons - OZ), who is turn works for Corrine Whitman (Streep - Kramer vs. Kramer), whose official title is never divulged, but she no doubt worked high up in the Operations division of the CIA.

My Viewpoint

Taken at face value, Rendition is a smartly written, brilliantly acted movie whose message is both timely and timeless.  However if viewed through the lens of far right politics and misguided patriotism, Rendition is as an attack on those who would keep America safe from those who seek to do us harm.  This view in my opinion completely ignores the fact that the systematic and pervasive undermining of our laws does the greater harm to our society and nation.    

Politics and patriotism aside, Rendition is great entertainment with a twist at the end I didn't see coming.  South African director Gavin Hood serves up a film with searing density and power.  Despite is detractors who saw the film as heavy-handed, Rendition, if viewed objectively really exists in that space that acknowledges the reality and relevance of both sides - those (like me) who believe that renditions (kidnappings) lead our country down dark paths that damage our reputation, our society, our fundamental and civil right, our moral fiber, and future security; and those who believe in the imperative to willfully and occasionally abandon the constitution and fundamental rights it guarantees in order to save lives and protect the nation.

For those willing to listen, Rendition has a powerful message to impart.